Economists warn electing far-right Milei would spell ‘devastation’ for Argentina
More than 100 economists including Thomas Piketty and Jayati Ghosh publish open letter ahead of country’s 19 November election
This is a surprise, isn’t it?
They’d rather go with the socialist who hsa ceased income tax for the election period and is paying for everything by printing more money in a 150% inflation environment.
So we can be sure they’re doing economics, Ho Yus, not politics, right?
The letter said Milei’s proposals – while presented as “a radical departure from traditional economic thinking” – were actually “rooted in laissez-faire economics”
Quite right. If anyone were allowed to prove that laissez fire works then that would be the end for socialism, no?
Milei has also attacked Piketty in the past, calling him a “turd” and “a criminal disguised as an intellectual”.
Warming to him, warming I am…..
I’ve heard of Thomas Piketty, though not read anything of his. Never heard of Jayati Ghosh.
I bet 99% of Argentinians haven’t heard of either of them, so their influence on the election may be limited.
Jayati? Guardian columnist. Teaches at Amhurst – a univesity somewhat to the left of Pol Pot College
Interesting. My memory of Piketty from the media left me with a vague impression of approval.
I suppose I should have realised he’d be pretty bad.
Amhurst – a univesity somewhat to the left of Pol Pot College
Not surprising really: it’s the college for the pheasantry.
I read Piketty’s Spirit Level 13 years ago, and all the way through I was thinking “but that can’t happen, but that’s illegal, but that breaks the laws of physics, but maths doesn’t work that way, well poking yourself in the eye *does* hurt, etc…”
Spirit Level is Pickett. Piketty is the French economist who did that “Capital” book.
Spirit Level is Pickett. Piketty is the French economist who did that “Capital” book.
They’re about the same when it comes to intellectual rigor, though.
A letter from “over 100 economists”, eh? Anyone else feeling a touch of déjà vu?
Picketty’s arguments have always seemed to me to be close relatives to the Victorian arguments that by now all the world’s capital cities would be 6+ feet deep in horse manure. They all assume things keep going on the same even when it’s obvious the maths behind the argument would fall apart long before reaching the conclusion.
Tim Worstall said:
“Spirit Level is Pickett. Piketty is the French economist who did that “Capital” book.”
Oh, I’d always thought they were the same bloke. Thank you.
But then for ages I’d thought Liz Truss wrote that book about panda grammar.
What I liked about the Spirit Level was its logic.
Japan has greater wealth equality than the West. Japanese people live longer. If we had greater wealth equality in the west, we’d live longer.
I applied that to other things.
The Japanese are more xenophobic and misogynistic than the West. The Japanese live longer………..
Japanese
Isn’t it partly down to their food?
Variety (the extensive number of different food items every day), fish (om-3), fermented (natto – K2 Mk7), and lots more beside?
Does anyone actually consider Piketty an economist anymore? After his book was torn apart?
Its amazing how many ‘economists’ end up with jobs as columnists instead of working as economists.
Its amazing how many ‘economists’ end up with jobs as columnists instead of
workingbeing employed as economists.Lack of demand. And it’s hardly a field for self employed one man start ups is it? Who wants the product?
I know of one. Julian Jessop. Pretty good at it too.
Lack of demand. And it’s hardly a field for self employed one man start ups is it? Who wants the product?
On the contrary, I think there is enormous demand for useful economic analysis in the business community. The simple fact is that present day economists are incapable of delivering it.
@Sam Duncan, …so Milei has fewer than 264 to go, then?
@RichardT – “But then for ages I’d thought Liz Truss wrote that book about panda grammar.”
“Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation”? That was by Lynne Truss. If Liz Truss had written it, it would have just been titled “Leaves” and been so short it would have contained only the word “lettuce”.
@Dennis, Pointing Out The Obvious
It was explained to me that the very best economists work for enormously wealthy private families.
The next best work for businesses.
The third best for Government.
And the remainder work as journalists.
Q. What’s the difference between an astrologer & an economist?
A. Astrologers are occasionally right.
It was explained to me that the very best economists work for enormously wealthy private families.
The next best work for businesses.
The third best for Government.
And the remainder work as journalists.
Where do the bozos in academia fit in there?
Come to think of it, it doesn’t really matter, does it?
Chris Snowdon did a takedown of The Spirit Level… called The Spirit Level Delusion.
He later did 5 and 10 year updates to see how well the original claims fared against new data.
https://web.archive.org/web/20150613023028/https://iea.org.uk/blog/the-spirit-level-revisited
http://spiritleveldelusion.blogspot.com/2019/03/the-spirit-level-ten-years-on.html
Fun reading.
Also some gems to be had looking at Snowdon’s blog
https://velvetgloveironfist.blogspot.com/search?q=spirit+level&max-results=20&by-date=true
And his website of extra notes, basically extended footnotes and updates, to his book
http://spiritleveldelusion.blogspot.com
And what business is it of theirs how the Argentines vote? How very colonial of them.
ooo dear, I’m now wondering why a convicted computer hacker is commenting on economics….